Data quantity vs data quality: what questions should the app ask its users?
Currently asked questions on first use only:
- year of birth
- gender
Currently asked questions repeatedly:
- fever yes/no
- fever temperature
- location
Fever has been selected as the primary thing to ask, since everybody has a fever meter at home, and the number it shows is quite objective and has no false positives (a fever meter does not show 38 C unless you really have fever).
Should we in addition ask other questions as well?
Some questionnaires suggested:
- cough
- respiratory symptoms
- headache
- muscle ache
NHS at https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/ list as likely symptoms:
- a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
- a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
We can't just everything. If there are too many questions, then people might stop responding and the quantity of replies decrease. We need to strike a good balance of quality/quantity of data.